4 days ago
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Posted On: October 14th 2026, 08:35 pm
This fall, two especially special Honda NSXs have popped up in the automotive media. One is perhaps one of the most important NSX examples ever – it was the car Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian Formula One legend and NSX development driver, drove in the early 1990s as his personal car. The other is the Pininfarina-designed, Judd-powered JAS Tensei NSX restomod that strives to be the ultimate development of the first-generation NSX.
Senna’s connection to the NSX is thanks to his time with McLaren, which ran Honda V6 Turbos in their F1 cars of the era. With that direct link established between the two, it was only natural that the development of Honda’s new mid-engined sports car would benefit from Senna’s input.
The Brazilian driver talked plenty about wanting a stronger and stiffer chassis among several other things, and he ended up having two NSXs of his own with access to a third owned by a friend. His primary red NSX currently has 39k miles on its odometer, and it’s going to auction in two weeks, with estimates thinking it could go over a million.
Fast forward to the NSX of today, and there’s a restomod built by an Italian company called JAS Motorsport. JAS has been building competition Hondas such as the second-gen NSX GT3 racing car, so it knows Hondas and the mentality behind the NSX, and daringly it has chosen to improve on the 1991-2005 original. The resulting car was shown this week at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, and it’s even got a beautiful modern rendition of pop-up headlights that are worth celebrating 👀
The car, named Tensei for “rebirth” in Japanese, has been created to show what the first-gen NSX would have developed into, were it made today. This means body panels crafted completely from carbon fiber, with the A and B pillars and the central tunnel of the original chassis strengthened with carbon Kevlar. With Pininfarina let loose on the exterior design, the Tensei still looks like an NSX, with the glasshouse identical, just with a more muscular cyberpunk body.
To learn more about the two new NSXs, click this post at the link in our bio 🫡
(Photos: JAS Motorsport, RM Sotheby's, Photo by Ercole Colombo via RM Sotheby’s)
Senna’s connection to the NSX is thanks to his time with McLaren, which ran Honda V6 Turbos in their F1 cars of the era. With that direct link established between the two, it was only natural that the development of Honda’s new mid-engined sports car would benefit from Senna’s input.
The Brazilian driver talked plenty about wanting a stronger and stiffer chassis among several other things, and he ended up having two NSXs of his own with access to a third owned by a friend. His primary red NSX currently has 39k miles on its odometer, and it’s going to auction in two weeks, with estimates thinking it could go over a million.
Fast forward to the NSX of today, and there’s a restomod built by an Italian company called JAS Motorsport. JAS has been building competition Hondas such as the second-gen NSX GT3 racing car, so it knows Hondas and the mentality behind the NSX, and daringly it has chosen to improve on the 1991-2005 original. The resulting car was shown this week at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, and it’s even got a beautiful modern rendition of pop-up headlights that are worth celebrating 👀
The car, named Tensei for “rebirth” in Japanese, has been created to show what the first-gen NSX would have developed into, were it made today. This means body panels crafted completely from carbon fiber, with the A and B pillars and the central tunnel of the original chassis strengthened with carbon Kevlar. With Pininfarina let loose on the exterior design, the Tensei still looks like an NSX, with the glasshouse identical, just with a more muscular cyberpunk body.
To learn more about the two new NSXs, click this post at the link in our bio 🫡
(Photos: JAS Motorsport, RM Sotheby's, Photo by Ercole Colombo via RM Sotheby’s)
Comments (3)
3 days agobinitalston
I like it from some angles, from others it just looks like an off-brand Burnout version of an NSX. It has some important styling cues, but the proportions are off. If the original NSX didn't exist, I would probably like it a lot. And most importantly, I wish it didn't need a donor car, and it's too expensive.
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